Back to the Mars Bar tomorrow

We have had a fantastic few days at home, the longer that Anouk is off of chemotherapy the stronger and healthier she becomes and we had a lovely day today, with a trip to Wisley to see the butterflys and Big cousin Mayas 11th birthday party. Bern, Rob, Owen And Billy came to stay last Saturday night and we loved spending time with them.

Last week and earlier this week we have had the usual trips around various hospital appointments, Auntie Ju took Anouk to St Georges or a heart test - all ok. She had her usual kidney and hearing tests - hearing has deteriorated slightly and it seems likely that she will need a hearing aid long term but currently functions extremely well on the hearing she has. Seh had her MRI on Monday and she tolerated the anaesthetic very well this time and the results were very encouraging. We had one trip to the Royal Surrey at 4.00am when her temperature went up but it soon came down again and we went home. Grandma drove to our house in her nighty to be with Neave when she woke up - she is amazing - well they both are... Neave has been absolutely fantastic, so loving and caring of Anouk - she did say that she wished that there was no such word as poorly and how sad it was that Anouk was poorly, however despite the odd wobble she still remains inherently happy and fun.

Then there was the birthday party on Sunday - which was lovely - 10 little friends - had a very good time.

Anouk then had to go to straight to the Royal Surrey for a blood transfusion but she has not had any hospital visits since Monday and that has been great.

We had a mad 24 hours of decorating and tidying.

We met with the stem cell coordinator and our consultant this week to go over the treatment plan. Anouk will need the high dose chemotherapy which starts tomorrow, she will have three drugs over 7 days and then two days of rest before having her stem cells transfused on Monday 22nd. She will then be quite unwell with high temperatures and and inflammation of her gut. She needs the stem cell transfusion because her bone marrow will be damaged by this extra high does of chemotherapy and will not be capable of regenerating under its own steam. We expect that she will be in for about 6 weeks - this will be her last dose of chemo. She will be in a private room but not under isolation and we would really like visitors to help cheer us up.

We are aware that the next few weeks are going to be tough for our gorgeous girl, but we are coming to the end of this gruelling treatment regime and that is a mighty fine thing.